Viewing Angles, Uniformity, Response & Lag

Viewing Angles

Like any IPS monitor, the PG27U has limitations when viewed too far off-axis. At 45°, a green shift appears, output falls by 30%, but detail remains clear. This is equal to the best IPS monitors we’ve photographed. From the top, the image washes out somewhat and output is reduced by 50%.

Screen Uniformity

Our PG27U sample was slightly disappointing in the black field uniformity test, turning in a 15.7 percent score. The anomalies occurred at the corners of the screen where there was slightly visible hot-spotting. But once light levels increased, there were no issues. At 100 percent, the score dropped to about five percent, which translates to perfect uniformity from edge to edge. Color is also about average for this class at 2.07dE variation. And we couldn’t see any problems with the naked eye in our 80 percent gray field pattern.

Pixel Response & Input Lag

The PG27U is certainly responsive with a 7ms screen draw time. That is typical of monitors running at 144Hz and up. But it gave away a few milliseconds in the lag test, most likely because of the sheer processing requirements of pushing 8.3 million pixels around the screen. It’s still much faster than any 60Hz monitor, and few gamers will notice an issue. With G-Sync and high frame rates in operation, we doubt anyone will perceive the 10ms difference between it and the MSI MAG24C.

Gaming With G-Sync & HDR

Call of Duty: WWII takes advantage of HDR by presenting richly detailed shadows and specular highlights, like the glint of sunlight reflecting off metal, and distant textural elements, like clouds and water (if you have yet to experience gaming in Ultra HD with HDR, this game is a revelation. Honestly, we’ve seen weaker CGI in many Hollywood films).

On the PG27U, HDR really brought textures to life. The opening D-Day invasion illustrated this perfectly as I could instantly tell the difference between a dry and a wet uniform. Facial textures were equally tactile with dirt and razor stubble clearly rendered. Wondering about frame rates? Our single GTX 1080 Ti kept the action between 80 and 90 frames per second fps) without difficulty. We set the PG27U to 144Hz and never observed a single hiccup. Motion blur? Fuggedaboutit. You won’t miss it, trust us.

Extended color plays a secondary role in this monitor. The shades of WWII were drab and dark, as you’d expect. Flesh tones were entirely natural, and when lit brightly, showed a proper tint of red and orange. Clouds and sky also looked brilliant with a depth that’s simply not possible in SDR or sRGB.

We also tried out Tomb Raider and Far Cry 4 to see how the PG27U worked with SDR titles. The extra contrast was apparent with deep blacks and textures popping. High-quality titles like this will look amazing on the PG27U despite their sRGB color gamuts. With frame rates in the 70-80 fps range, response was smooth and free of blur. Input lag was non-existent too. This monitor will breathe new life into your existing library.